Shooting Stars vs Bendel Insurance: Preview as Ibadan tests the Vipers

Bendel Insurance travel to Ibadan on Friday second in the Euromatch NPFL and with a chance to draw level on points with leaders Enugu Rangers, but the Vipers have won only once away from Benin City this season, and Shooting Stars have not lost at home.

The game opens Matchday 13 at the Lekan Salami Stadium, two days before Rangers, Bendel and third-placed Nasarawa United all finish a round in which the top three are all on the road.

Bendel have 21 points from 12 games, three behind Rangers, who have a game in hand. Shooting Stars are 13th on 15 points, four points clear of the bottom four and a point outside the top half.

Match facts

Form guide: a fortress against a side that never draws

Shooting Stars have played six league games in Ibadan this season and won four of them, beating Inter Lagos, Katsina United, Ranchers Bees and Abia Warriors. The other two, against Nasarawa United and Kano Pillars, finished goalless. That is 11 goals scored and three conceded at home.

Away from home it is a different club. The Oluyole Warriors have not won on the road in six attempts, and they arrive on the back of a 1-0 defeat at Barau, a week after beating Abia 4-1 at home.

Bendel Insurance are the only side in the division without a draw: seven wins and five defeats from 12 games. All six of their home games have been wins. Away, they have lost at Nasarawa United, Ranchers Bees, Abia Warriors, Sporting Lagos and Rangers, and won only at Kwara United, 2-1 on 1 November.

They come into this game off a late win. Jonathan James Mairiga equalised in first-half stoppage time against Niger Tornadoes last Sunday, set up by captain Kayode Oke, and substitute John Taiwo scored the winner in the fifth minute of added time.

Head-to-head

The last meeting came in Ibadan in January, when Yakubu Yusuf scored in the 56th minute to give Shooting Stars a 1-0 win and end an unbeaten run for Bendel.

Key battles

Nigerian connection: Bendel's late goals against a tight home defence

Bendel have scored 20 league goals, more than anyone else in the top five, and the Tornadoes game showed they keep going until the end. Shooting Stars, though, have conceded only three times at home in six games, and two of those home games were against top-five sides that failed to score.

Salisu Yusuf's side will expect to control the game in front of their own supporters. The question is whether Bendel can stay in it long enough for their bench to matter, as Taiwo's winner against Tornadoes did.

Analysis: why the table flatters neither side

On the table this looks like second against 13th. On venue form it is closer to one of the league's strongest home sides against one of its weakest travellers. Shooting Stars have taken 14 of their 15 points at home; Bendel have taken 18 of their 21 in Benin City.

That split is the story of this NPFL season, in which away wins are still rare after 12 rounds. A Bendel win in Ibadan would be the clearest sign yet that the Vipers are genuine title contenders rather than a home side climbing on the back of a fixture list.

There is also the matter off the pitch. Bendel's petition over their 1-0 defeat at Rangers is still awaiting a decision, as Soccernet reported when the crossbar protest was lodged. Whatever happens there, points in Ibadan are the only ones Bendel can control this week.

Verdict

Shooting Stars' two goalless home draws came against top-five opposition, and Bendel's attack is too good to be shut out for 90 minutes. A first draw of the season for the Vipers would suit Rangers more than anyone, but it is the most honest reading of two records that point in opposite directions.